Bill Maher returned Friday night just in time for the McCain/Palin announcement and, to no one’s surprise, had quite a bit to say about it. See for yourself:

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia was also on, and gave an excellent analysis of McCain’s VP pick along with an overview of Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday night. I like the choice of Biden as a running mate for Obama, but Kaine would also have been a good choice and will be instrumental in Obama’s attempt to carry Virginia, which is now considered a battleground state.

Then there’s Senator McCain. Watch Johnny’s wandering eye as Sarah Palin speaks after being named as VP nominee. Also notice the Senator twiddling with his wedding ring.

I can only imagine the thoughts that are going through his head as he ogles Gov. Palin, ‘If only Cindy hadn’t made me sign that damn pre-nup.’

Putting Country First. This has been the slogan of the McCain campaign, up until yesterday that is. With the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, Senator McCain has shown that he is willing to put the future of the country at risk for the sake of a political stunt that he hopes will cause women to vote for him simply because there is a woman on the ticket.

For a man who has made his experience and his judgement, and Barack Obama’s alleged deficiency in both areas, a central theme in this campaign, McCain called into question yesterday the value of his experience and the soundness of his judgement.

Here is a man who, at 72 years-old, would be the oldest man to be sworn in for his first term as President. A man with a family history of heart disease and a personal history of recurring melanoma. A man who is willing to put the future of the country in the hands of someone who has no knowledge, and admittedly no interest, in foreign policy, who recently said she has no idea of what the duties of vice-president are, and who 2 years ago was the mayor of a small town in rural Alaska.

This was a choice made out of panic, made after Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday night. From ABC News on Friday:

“The campaign secretly flew Palin into Dayton last night. She and McCain met privately for a couple of hours. McCain concluded she would “shake up the system” and was “a maverick,” qualities he believed Lieberman would have brought to the ticket. But she also would appeal to conservatives — which Lieberman most certainly would not have done.

After their meeting, McCain concluded he was comfortable with his choice. He notified Pawlenty this morning that he was going in a different direction.”

So when the McCain campaign announced on Wednesday that he had made his choice for VP, they either didn’t tell the truth or they had no idea what shoot-from-the-hip John was about to do. Either way, that’s not the honesty or the judgement I want in a President.

Senator McCain is willing to risk putting someone who he met with for “a couple of hours” in charge of making crucial national security and economic policy decisions which affect 300 million people?

I’m sure most of you saw Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night and have drawn your own conclusions as to it’s content and it’s effectiveness. I’ll share my thoughts with you and then give the reaction of others and the response of the McCain camp, which was as predictable as hot August days in Texas.

In a nutshell, Obama was magnificent. He answered his critics who say he is all style and no substance by laying out specific objectives that his administration would pursue. He drew stark differences between himself and John McCain, correctly linking McCain with the failed policies of George W. Bush. And he went after McCain, not on personal or character issues, but rather on McCain’s record and what he would do as President. In horse racing that’s called a trifecta, three winners.

Here’s just one reaction to the speech. This is Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican consultant and a protege of Lee Atwater when it comes to down-and-dirty political warfare. Hearing this should be a cause of concern in the McCain camp.

Then there was the response from the McCain campaign:

“Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm’s way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President.”

Here is MSNBC’s Chuck Todd’s assessment of that predictable reaction:

The Republicans definitely have a hard act to follow. If the tone of their campaign against Barack Obama so far is any indication, I expect it to be a 4-day slime and smear festival. The icing on the GOP cake will be the expected riveting acceptance speech by that great orator, Senator John McCain. This much I know, I would love to be the person who has the coffee and No-Doz concession in the arena that night.

Proving that they are running out of reasons for which to attack Barack Obama, some on the far-right are now mocking the stage setting for tonight’s acceptance speech in Denver’s Mile High Stadium. They are calling the backdrop of Greek columns “the Temple of Obama”, the “heights of presumptuousness”, and “blind hubris.”

On his radio program yesterday, Rush Limbaugh said that since the temples in ancient Greece were built as homes for the gods, Obama has taken his Messiah status one step further and now believes himself to be God.

I hate to be the one to burst the GOP bubble, but I guess a little history lesson is in order. Today is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was given in front of the structure pictured here, better known as the Lincoln Memorial. Note the columns.

Here is a photograph of Dr. King taken during a portion of that speech. Again, take notice of the columns in the background.

So you see my Republican friends, the stage is not set up to portray Obama as some sort of Deity, it has an historical context. Oh well, back to attacking Obama’s patriotism and smearing him by taking his remarks on Iran and Israel out of context.

I might, however, suggest an appropriate setting for John McCain’s acceptance speech. Maybe in front of a mock-up of a crashed fighter plane, or in light of his many references to his time in captivity, a re-creation of the Hanoi Hilton. He is a former POW, you know.